[budgetphile]

Godkin's silver interconnects:

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by budgetphile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Godkin's silver interconnects: <evasion of giant pics in quotes>

That was fast...


On the case of this amps strengths - rock/metal, I actually did a few back-to-back comparisons of the Darkvoice (with new tubes) and my Porta Corda. Porta Corda, being a tiny portable amp running off a 9v power supply - has more resolution/detail through hd595. That is the only advantage it has (smaller soundstage, bit drier sound), but for music that is good with detail it seems to do better.

I am waiting for ath-w5000 to arrive, if I get similar results with that combination I might swap the DV for solidstate... (something more impressive though, corda aria anyone? xD)

 

[budgetphile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaloS /img/forum/go_quote.gif That was fast...

Fast?!?!

It took me three days to finish them

Seriously though, it takes me about six hours to make a pair, it's the winding of the Teflon tape that does my head in

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by budgetphile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Fast?!?! It took me three days to finish them Seriously though, it takes me about six hours to make a pair, it's the winding of the Teflon tape that does my head in

Eh, better than myself, I'd take like 2 weeks..... (poor attention span). I'm better off buying these things... (and the way I am leaning to go I prolly won't have any use for em >.<)

 

[Godkin]

Thanks again, Budgetphile. They look great - very professional!!! I won't sleep now till they arrive.

 

[MaloS]

Mmm, got my cv4010s and some EF95s along with them =]
Listening to 4010s right now, and honestly...I am not picking up anything new >.< Although give credit here, hd595 is by far not the most revealing headphone. I'll do some tests when I get w5k.

Anyone have a constant desire to describe bass as rubbery with the Darkvoice?

Also, HIFI, how's the DV332 acquisition going =] ?

 

[Godkin]

The CV4010 (M8100) is a very good tube, but as I've said before the differences between tubes is not night-and-day, but more subtle. Each tube has its own character: the MULLARDS are sweeter, the RCAs crisper and more forward. I can't say I've found the bass produced by the 332 and the CV4010s as "rubbery." If anything they "grounded" the bass more.

I have a pair of SYLVANIA 6AK5Ws Greens on the way so we'll see how they sound compared to the others.

Also, Budgetphile's silver ICs are wheeling their way to me. Hopefully, they'll arrive tomorrow and I'll give them a try.

 

[Godkin]

Budgetphile's ICs arrived this morning - very well packaged. They certainly have a DIY look about them, yet you can see the amount of work and time that's went into making them. They're terminated with very pretty Shark RCAs that fit the inputs on the 332 very snuggly.

Sonically, they're excellent - even though they've by no means run in yet. They seem to have all the advantages of a Silver IC, but with none of the disadvantages: namely, they sound open and smooth, the top-end particularly detailed, but don't have the nasty, brittle-sounding characteristics that can affect some silver cables. I thought my VAN DEN HUL interconnects were good, and they are, but with Budgetphile's DIY silver IC the resolution of fine detail, at both ends of the scale, is simply superb. Separation and soundstaging is also better, and the timbre of instruments excellent.

The 332 and this cable, as Budgetphile notes, are a perfect combination.

 

[MaloS]

Might be probably because the 332 does not have crispiest high end which is where the silver is helping out.

If anyone is interested in tubes for this amp, I have the following:
Large:
Svetlana 6S19P-V x4
Small:
JAN 5654 x2
Mullard EF95 x2

I actually sold my amp in the end due to 2 reasons - too much current draw and I constantly keep going to my Porta Corda just because I prefer its resolution. (I decided to purchase a higher end SS amp as a replacement). These are the left-over after-market tubes I have that actually have not seen any use except for JANs which have about 20 hours on them.

 

[budgetphile]

Hi Godkin,

Glad you like the silver ICs, give them some time and they will sound even better, my pair which is identical to yours has about 20 odd hours of use, compared to your pair (which I tried briefly to make sure it works) sound more settled, I read in several forums on the net as I was researching making the silver IC's that they take about 100 hours to fully break in.

Before all this I used to think that cables cannot possibly break in, now I know better

 

[hew]

I have followed the thread for a while and though I would mention a tube I have found quite satisfying in the 332. I don't see where anyone else has mentioned the 1945 6AK5 JAN Hytron, available on ebay for about 3.30 each. It has a different presentation when compared to the the M8100, the RCA, GE, etc. In my system there was a much fuller and warmer sound and better extension in the bass. It was far more musical than any of the others I tried. However, it is not as transparent as the M8100.

 

[Godkin]

Hi there, Hew, welcome to this 332 thread. Yes, I've seen those HYTRON 6AK5 tubes, and I've been on the point of buying them on a number of occasions. I think Budgetphile was buying some, but he had some difficulties with delivery. Thanks for you input - it's good for 332 owners to get together for the common good.

Budgetphile, left the 332 and the silver ICs running all day, and the sound has improved. Gorgeous sound: separation is superb, threads of the music that were sketchily portrayed before are better presented. But as I said in my PM, there's a wonderful transparency to silver ICs. Even the "drive" and "pace" of the music seems to be better. In fact, it has all the good points of silver I remember but with none of the drawbacks.

I've read the material you provided on the links and it all "appears" pretty straightforward - but how many well intentioned audio diyer has foundered on those rocks. The only problem, which I think you highlighted, is the process of wrapping the plumber's tape around the cable. There's also a great design for a power cord. No thoughts about making this? Also have you seen the The Missing Link website, they're selling EICHMANN Bullets - the metal bodied variety - for £7.50 each, £24 for four. You see it's this silver IC: it's so good I'm now wondering how it would sound with higher quality RCAs.

I'm listening to the silver IC now and it's getting better and better. Superb.

 

[budgetphile]

I ordered a set of Hythorns well over a month ago, the original shipment went missing, apparently the shipper was stealing all the sellers overseas orders since they have no tracking numbers, the seller sent me another batch, which has not arrived yet, so I can only wait to find out for myself how good they sound.

As far as the plugs are concerned, I made a pair of interconnects using the Eichmann tellurium copper plugs, and they sound better than the shark plugs, the Eichmann plugs hardly contain any metal at all compared to regular plugs, just enough to pass the signal. But the improvement in sound quality using the Eichmann's is associated with substantial extra cost and a lot more hassle in assembly and usage, the Eichmann plugs are very fiddly to work with, and once assembled have to be treated with great care, after completing a pair using the Eichmann plugs, I ended breaking the silver wires at the solder joint as I was inserting them into the back of the 332, which meant that I had to partially disassemble the cable, de-solder, clear the old solder and re solder again, so I wouldn't advice anyone to go for them unless they are comfortable with using a soldering iron.

What makes this particular design of silver ICs sound good is using as little metal in the signal path as possible, the most reasonably priced thin 4N silver wire I could find was AWG30, I would have loved to use AWG32 instead for the signal wire, but the cost would have been too much for me, since very few places seem to stock such thin gauge off the shelf. Another contributing factor to the sound quality was applying the Eichmann principle of a thickness ratio of cold wire being around x1.4 the thickness of the signal wire.

I also found another contributing factor to the sound quality which is the minimalist approach in insulating the wires, it would have been very easy for me to add some sort of fancy final outer sleeving on top of the finished ICs but I noticed with the material I tried which was a fairly expensive specialized IC outer sleeving, that it tarnished the sound quality somewhat, so I decided not to implement it.

The research I have done so far seems to indicate that the ideal insulator for the silver wires would be pure cotton, I started out trying to use cotton tubing, I tried to thread the wire using a needle, the cotton tubing I used had a hardish core, and the wire kept breaking before reaching the desired length, which made me settle for the Teflon tape instead. I am still looking for suitable cotton tubing, I suspect that the ultimate in sound quality in silver ICs would be to use AWG32 for signal, AWG30 for cold, the Eichmann silver plugs (which are ridiculously expensive) and insulate the wires in pure cotton tubing.

I have come across a couple of very interesting power chord designs that I would like to try out, unfortunately with the nature of the work I do, I don't get work very regularly, and when I do, I get too busy that I don't have much time for my real interests, I have just started a new contract, I am contracted for a week, but I suspect (and hope) that my contract will be extended for a few months, so my sound Nirvana will have to wait a while

 

[Godkin]

You should give it all up, Budgetphile, and make audio ICs - you've got a natural talent for it.

No, seriously, I hope your work goes well and your contract gets extended.

PS: Cable improving even more - blows my old ICs out of the water. I've never had ICs that improved the sound of a system this much.

 

[bimmer116]

man, budgetphile I really want to purchase a pair of your silver ICs to try out. I don't know if you received my pm about purchasing a pair from you. Godkin what was the difference you noticed with the IC, and how much did it cost?

Thanks,

Mike